1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a controller-equipped machining apparatus having a machining time measurement function and an on-machine measurement function.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional machining of a workpiece, a machining program is created and a machining apparatus is controlled based on this machining program to machine the workpiece. In the machining of a workpiece with a machining apparatus, an operator adjusts machining conditions such that the time taken for the machining can be shortened while maintaining machining accuracy at a prescribed level or higher. However, optimum values of machining conditions vary depending on the characteristics of tools, characteristics of a workpiece, contents of machining, type of a machining apparatus, etc., and therefore every time an operator newly performs machining, he/she has to expend efforts to adjust the machining conditions by trial and error, exploiting knowledge and experience.
As a related art associated with such an adjustment of machining conditions, WO 00/010769 discloses an invention in which machining conditions in past machining operations are compiled into a database to be used for the purpose of assisting an operator.
With this publicly known art, efforts made to adjust machining conditions in one situation can be reduced to a certain degree, because of the possibility to reuse machining conditions in other similar situations; however, even after reading past machining conditions from the database, the operator still needs to repeat trial and error in order to adjust the past machining conditions so as to suit a current machining situation, and therefore this publicly known art does not completely eliminate the efforts of the operator.